Tonight, powerhouse Candice Glover, a 23-year-old from St. Helena Island, South Carolina, became the first female contestant in six seasons to take the Idol title on “American Idol.” She beat runner-up Kree Harrison, also 23, of Woodville, Texas.

Before the results of last night’s votes were revealed, a star-studded line-up rocked the stage. The Top Ten finalists sang “Glad You Came” first, though, giving us a look at what their summer tour might look like.

The Band Perry took the stage singing “Done” and was joined by Janelle Arthur, who made it to the all-girl top five.

There was a funny video in which the guys claimed that they were sabotaged by the girls–pegged off one by one. At the end of it, Jordin Sparks appeared and said a girl needed to win this season so sabotage had to happen, that none of the guys played a guitar, which didn’t help them, and that lots of Idol has-beens were having success on “The Voice.”

Then they guys performed a medley of songs by The Four Seasons before Frankie Valli joined them and added “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and “Grease” to the mix.

The show returned from a break to judge Mariah Carey on stage singing a medley of her songs. It felt very abrupt, like the timing of the show was off and she started singing before TV caught up with her. Fellow judge Randy Jackson played in her band as she performed.

Amber Holcomb, who made it to the top four, sang “Next to Me.” She was joined by Emeli Sandé.

In a rather moving moment, Kree and Candice presented their hometown mentors, Kree’s “musical soulmate” and Candice’s grandmother, with Ford cars.

Then Psy livened things up with his latest anthem, “Gentlemen.”

Keith Urban performed his new single “Little Bit of Everything.”

In one of the those fabulous Idol moments that will be remembered for a while, Candice and Jennifer Hudson sang an incredible rendition of “Insufferable.”

Top-three finalist Angie Miller got two duets tonight. She sang “Titanium” from behind the piano with Adam Lambert, followed by a “Domino” duet with Jesse J, Angie’s idol. Jesse asked Angie if she could fly her to the UK to sing Angie’s single at a concert. Apparently, Angie could have either sang the single she wrote herself or joined Jesse J. Seems like, given the offer, she made the right choice.

The top ten got the chance in a video to make fun of the judges’ habits—Mariah’s “darling,” Keith’s getting into the music (but no mention of “baby”), Randy’s “In it to win it.” And Nicki’s straight-shooting words and her changing hair.

There was a tribute to Randy Jackson, who is leaving the show. Randy is the only original judge left. There was a look back at many of his memorable moments over the years. It seems like “Dawg” is officially retired, though Ryan said, “The door is always open.”

Aretha Franklin, who famously doesn’t like to fly, joined the show from New York via remote, and gave Candice a little pep talk before joining the top five girls in a bi-coastal performance. Aretha also joked that she had the results.

It was a diva-fest tonight as Jennifer Lopez, a judge last year, performed with Pitbull.

The girls sang one final duet together, then, finally, the results were revealed, a little past the scheduled time for the show to end.

A few parting questions: Could Nicki have looked more bored out of her mind the most of the time? Maybe because she was the only judge not to perform? What was with Randy’s pink floral jacket? What was with Nicki’s furry boots? Did anyone find the dog tribute to Randy remotely funny? Do you think the diva-judges will be back?

@boots wrote “Should have been Kree she is a much more pop./ marketable singer.. Candice will go like so many other winners. she will fall into obscurity and no one will remember who she is while Kree will have a huge career.”

Comments (5 of 111)

I liked them both, but voted for Kree. She sings what I buy. I got scared for awhile. Those "judges" were really pushing for Angie. Something about her seemed very fake. She was always looking for the camera while she was singing.
I do hope, now that they got their "girl" win, they'll ease up and let everyone through that is good. It was pretty plain to see they guys in the top 10 who were clearly inferior to the ladies.

9:17 pm May 25, 2013

Truth wrote:

Everyone is talking about the black lawsuits against idol and believe they put 3 black judges in place to make sure they had a black winner , even Aretha Franklin gave away the winner even before they reveled it so a lot of fans are saying it was fixed to help out with the lawsuits don’t believe me google it a tell all book is coming out , Candice here is your contract from NUTRISYSTEM enjoy you success

10:33 pm May 19, 2013

John wrote:

O and Sonny, you got it right. A year from now, we won't even remember what's her name.

10:13 pm May 19, 2013

John wrote:

Clearly, Angie is the most talented of all the contestants.this season. Once again, Idol did not crown the
right person. I do believe that Randy Jackson's comments during Angie's songs and his obvious bias towards
Candice contributed to Angie's exit. That said, Angie's has an awesome future, probably better than the two
finalists. Go Figure.

9:10 pm May 19, 2013

Lorbee wrote:

I stopped watching it when Simon left and after Adam Lambert, there was never another contestant worth watching in my opinion. I only saw a small bit of this show, giving it one more shot to see if I could resurrect some interest, but I see that another screaming hefty "soul singing" woman(yeah, we really need another one of these) was crowned the winner...I was right to realize it turned boring, stayed boring and I haven't missed a thing.

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